24;36-42 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
The 19th-century Scottish Pastor, Robert Candlish, spoke beautifully about “Christ Coming Quickly”:
“To a true believer, the possibility of many ages yet elapsing before the Lord comes again ought no more to diminish the influence of that event upon his mind, and heart, and conscience, than the fact of ages having elapsed since the Lord came at first lessens the moral weight of his constant vivid sight of Christ and him crucified. I know no chronology or chronological computation of long eras or periods when dealing with that Savior, who eighteen hundred years ago trod with His blessed feet the soil of Judea, and expired on the cross of Calvary.
“Then why should there be any real difficulty in applying this principle in the prospect, more than in the retrospect? The same faith which goes back thousands of years in the past, to trust His coming and work for me, accomplished long centuries ago, loses all sense of distance and remoteness in the bright and vivid apprehension of the cross. And will not the same faith in its keen glance and grasp cruise along the stream of time in the future, seize the one great and only object of its hope, which is His coming, and bring it near, even to the very door, ay, though ages may seem to come in between? What he says is, the more we grasp and meditate on His words of His Second Coming and believe, His Second Coming and our glorification will become as real as His First Coming and our redemption accomplished.
“These are the two events, the death of shame and the coming in glory, which faith, when rightly exercised, grasps; which I, believing, grasp. I grasp them as equally real, equally near. Christ dying, near and present; Christ coming, near and present. What though ages have run since that death and ages more are perhaps to run before that coming! It is nothing to me. The world’s history, past and future; the church’s history, past and future; all is to me for the present as if it never had been and never were to be. Wherever I am, whatever I am about, ought I not to be alive to my position between these two manifestations of Christ and these alone? Behind me Christ dying; before me Christ coming. Is it not thus, and only thus, that I live by the faith of Him who loved me and gave Himself for me; that I live also by the power of the world to come; enduring as seeing Him who is invisible?” [Cited in I. Murray, The Puritan Hope, 215-216]
That is the idea of our text beautifully put in another way. For a true believer, whenever Christ comes, even after 1,000 years, he will always live with the expectation that Christ may come in his lifetime, in fact, every day of his life. And so it has been for endless generations of Christ’s followers. They have lived with a view to the Lord’s coming again soon, maybe in their lifetime. Because that is the only way we can endure to the end and live watchful and holy in this depraved world. For that, we need to clearly understand about the Lord’s Second Coming and very certainly believe that He is coming again. We are studying about that in Matthew 24, section by section, the two questions of the disciples (v. 3: DOJ and His coming) and the Lord’s wise answer to those questions (vv. 4–31).
We have seen the Lord finished answering the questions of the disciples about the DOJ and the end of the world which will happen at His Second Coming. Now He is giving them applications and lessons from the truth. We saw last week, in verses 32–35, there was an application regarding the DOJ. He used an ordinary parable (lesson from the fig tree), tells them they can know the nearness of the DOJ when they see the signs He pointed out, then also tells them the prophecy about the generation (v. 34): “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place,” meaning it is coming in your lifetime. Then, to assure them to completely trust His words, He makes it certain by the infallible authority of His words: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (v. 35).
Now, He moves to talk about applications for His Second Coming, from verse 36 to the end of the chapter. He declares that the time of His coming is hidden. He then amplifies and applies this truth.
We will see that in four headings:
- The time of His Second Coming is hidden.
- Three applications because of the hidden timing of the Second Coming:
- Watchfulness
- Preparedness
- Faithfulness
We will see only the first application today.
1. The Time of His Second Coming is Hidden
Now, in verse 36, there is a transition. Now He brings up the subject of the Second Coming and then gives applications specific to the Second Coming. So far, He has been talking about the DOJ.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”
See, unlike the DOJ of Jerusalem, there are signs before that event that will indicate its nearness (like a fig tree sprouting leaves indicates summer). But there are no signs to indicate the nearness of the Second Coming. It is concealed. The beginning words in this verse itself show the Lord is clearly shifting His focus from the nearness of the DOJ to the Second Coming. I want to clearly explain that is what our Lord is doing. Because all the dispensational commentaries and study Bibles you have will say this whole chapter is about His Second Coming, even the fig tree parable, and is not talking about the DOJ. They claim there is no transition. I don’t want you to believe what I am saying because of my authority, but be convinced because of the contextual meaning of God’s word. So bear with me for five minutes with the technical explanation of the words.
Two words indicate why I tell you that there is a transition from verse 36 onwards from the previous verses: “But” and “that”—a contrasting particle and a demonstrative pronoun. They are not explicitly there in the Tamil translation, but they are in the English and original languages.
First, the contrasting particle with which the verse starts: “BUT.” Most times it is used as a contrast. He uses it in the previous verse: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” There is a marvelous contrast. Throughout the Scriptures it is used for a contrast: “Wages of sin is death, but the marvelous contrast, but the gift of God is eternal life.” Our Lord has been speaking of the nearness of the DOJ. He finished that section by saying heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. Now, “But of that day…”—in contrast to the nearness of the DOJ. But, there is a strong contrast to the another event: it will be the opposite of the DOJ. My Second Coming, you cannot know like you can judge the nearness of the DOJ from the fig tree example.
Secondly, the demonstrative pronoun by which the event is identified uniquely and isolated: “THAT day.” This is how we commonly speak: “THAT man,” “THAT house,” “You expect me to eat THAT.” You are pointing to that person with an emphatic pronoun. Christ here uses this demonstrative pronoun in the original way to emphasize “But of THAT day.” He is putting emphasis on something other than the DOJ. Could it be that the Lord, like any other preacher, on the Mount of Olives where they all could see the temple, may have been pointing to the city and temple with His hands: “All these will happen in this generation,” and then maybe paused and pointed His hand to the future and said “but of THAT day”? Pointing the finger far out in the future, He was not talking about the DOJ.
“That day” has central significance in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, there are references to “that day” throughout the prophetic books. Even in the New Testament, there are references: “for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day” (2 Timothy 1:12); “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day” (2 Timothy 4:8). This phrase is not a simple phrase; it has deep roots in the prophecy of the Old and New Testaments, pointing to the Day of the Lord. So the Lord is using “But” (contrast) and “that day” to tell them that He is talking about His Second Coming, when He will come with power and glory at the end of the age, to glorify His people and destroy unbelievers.
The Concealed Time Declared and Amplified
He declares that day is the Concealed time, declared, amplified, and applied.
36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” (Mark 13:32 adds: “nor the Son”).
“No one knows, but the Father.” No preacher upon the earth, above earth, or beneath, in heaven, in the entire universe—only the Father knows. God the Father knows because the time has been fixed in His own decree and purpose for all eternity. The day of the Second Coming is surely fixed in God’s calendar, as was the first day of creation, as was the first Sabbath, as the flood came in Noah’s time, as the day when Christ was born in His First Coming, as the day of the abomination of desolation. There is no uncertainty. He knows the day because He has set the day. But it is hidden from everyone else. He has shared it with no one else.
See how He amplifies this. Not content with the general point, “no one knows,” He kind of amplifies by specifying who does not know: “not even the angels in heaven.” Mark says “nor the Son.”
Our Lord is so concerned that the time of His coming is hidden, He wants to emphasize it and amplify it. So He didn’t state it in a generic statement, “no one knows,” and leave it. Why? Because He knows human nature. Whatever He says, in our sinful arrogance, we will try to estimate the time, put charts, and try to figure out the sequence of events: this after this, He will come. If you Google “men who predicted Christ’s Second Coming,” Wikipedia will list people from the 1st century to 2021! Can you believe even last year, there was a long list of men who predicted it, from Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others? So He wants to strongly tell us: no one knows and no one can know.
He covers everybody, even the most probable people who may know His coming. Of all creatures, who would most probably know? Angels. And if not them, He should know. “Even I don’t know.”
First, Angels: Angels are spirits, servants of God, sent forth to service to the children of God. They protect the people of God, they accomplish missions many times unseen by us, and fulfill God’s purposes. Angels are the nearest to God, surrounding His throne. They look upon God face-to-face with no distortion because of sin. They see the glory of God. Their minds are not blinded by sin, nor prejudiced by the influence of false teaching, the world, or vanity. They are spotlessly holy creatures in the immediate presence of God. Interestingly, our Lord said that at His coming, the main task of gathering His elect will be done by the angels (v. 31): “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” They will also gather the wicked for judgment as tares. Who then is more likely to know the Lord’s return? Pure, sinless spirits near the throne of God, waiting for the slightest signal from God’s eye to leap to action and obedience. They will come with the Lord in a big procession; surely, they know that day is fixed in their calendar. In spite of all of that, even they do not know. God has chosen not to reveal it to them. Not even Michael or Gabriel, Cherubim, or Seraphim closest to God know.
We can swallow all that, but how do we understand… “nor the Son”? Wow, that is an amazing statement. It is clearly there in Mark; some manuscripts include it in Matthew (NASB, NIV have it). The Son, who is so certain about the destruction of Jerusalem, is certain of the events that will happen before it (the abomination of desolation). He warns His people with those signs. The Son knew about the details of His coming: the sun darkening, stars falling, He will come with power and glory, He knew angels will gather the elect. He, who is “very God of very God,” co-equal with the Father, co-eternal with the Godhead, co-existent with the Father from all eternity, even He did not know.
There is so much debate on this verse. If Jehovah’s Witnesses come to you, this is one of their favorite verses. They will use it and say: “If Jesus is God, He must be omniscient, knowing all. How can He say He doesn’t know? Then He is not omniscient. See, only the Father knows, so only the Father is God.” What do we say? Do not blink or sweat. We should not just take one verse but see the whole context and the whole context of the Bible. We have to see the analogy of Scripture.
Firstly, the very point they use to say He is not God makes our heart swell with gratitude, because here we learn something more of the wonder of what took place in the Incarnation.
Though He was fully God, “very God of very God,” when He became a man, He voluntarily restricted the use of His godhood, of His divine attributes. It wasn’t that He laid the attributes aside; it wasn’t that He set His deity aside; it was that He restricted the use of those things. He restricted the use of His omniscience to those things which the Father desired Him to know.
That is the design of the Incarnation. When the Bible says He became a man, He took upon Him the form of a servant. It means that He submitted Himself in all things to His Father. Everything He learned was what the Father wanted Him to learn; everything He said and did was what the Father wanted. That’s why in John 15:15, you have a very, very important verse in understanding Christ.
John 15:15: “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
So everything He taught us was what He learned from the Father. He humbled Himself to such an extent that though He is omniscient, He did not know in His humanity anything more than what the Father revealed to Him. He used even His omniscience in subjection to the Father. When He said, “I do not know,” it was the Son of Man in His humiliation form in earthly existence, sitting on the Mount of Olives. In His present condition, He didn’t know. He was in utter dependence on the Father.
The God-Man exists in two levels of consciousness. You and I exist in one level, as dependent, created creatures. But our Lord, in the great mystery of the incarnation, was equal with God in every sense of equal worth and dignity, bearing the divine essence. The Word became flesh. He took to Himself a true human soul and body in Mary’s womb. He was a God-Man: two unmixed natures, dwelling in one person.
As a man, He had to learn the alphabets, grow in knowledge, and learn from people. The Bible says Jesus grew in wisdom and stature. All of the limitations of the human race, He knew and understood from experience. He was sleepy, hungry, tired, thirsty, angry, and grieved. As man, He struggled in weakness in temptation and Gethsemane. The Creator and Upholder of the whole universe had to be strengthened by His own creatures, the angels, at that time.
Yet, as much as He was Man, He was not God (in terms of function, while incarnate); as much as He was God, He was not Man (in terms of divine nature). We cannot figure this out. “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.” His human mind had not received a revelation.
His present condition as the Son of Man, when He spoke these words, was the condition of voluntarily assumed humiliation, a voluntary dependence that meant even in the acquisition of knowledge, He could only know what His Father revealed to Him. As the great final prophet of the church, He makes known all things that the Father revealed. So without shame, He says neither the Son knows. The Omniscient One as God, in His human nature, admitted things that He did not know. That gives further evidence of the genuineness of His humanity as well as His trust in the Father.
That was a self-imposed humiliation of the divine nature to accomplish your redemption and mine. See His humiliation. So, if Jesus Christ, in His humanity, did not need to know when He would return, then neither do we need that kind of precise knowledge. He will come again, but the time is known only to God and not to man.
But what about now? He has been exalted at the Father’s right hand, put in a position far above all authority and name and power. Does He know it now? What do you think? If you ask me, unashamedly, even I do not know. Because my Father has not clearly revealed it to me in the Scriptures. The Bible does not state that clearly. We can imply maybe He knows after He rose again and was glorified, but it is not clear.
Why the Timing is Hidden
Now the great question is, Why didn’t God reveal it? Firstly, it is His sovereign wish. Who are we to question? He has His great reasons. But with our little, puny minds, we can see the wisdom of God and how much it is good for us not to know. The inevitable application of the hidden nature of His coming for us is those three key words: Watchfulness, Preparedness, and Faithfulness.
There is tremendous unexpectedness, suddenness, and mystery of the moment of the coming of Jesus Christ. The Lord didn’t reveal it because the Lord wants every generation to live in expectancy. So Christians ever since the New Testament have always lived in the eagerness of the coming of Christ. We see Paul, Peter, John, and James writing in their epistles and teaching the church the Lord may come at any time suddenly. Why? He wants His people to live with these three key words, because that is the only way we can live holy in this depraved world.
It is God’s will that we should live with watchfulness, preparedness, and faithfulness. If we expect it at any time, we will be always watchful, prepared, and always faithful, right? That is how a Christian is supposed to live. That is the way our lives become fruitful, useful, and blessed. So if we truly believe Christ is going to come, His coming time is not revealed, hidden, and it may come anytime unexpected. If we truly believe those things, these three things should be part of our lifestyle. So all the lessons coming next in this passage are an illustration for watchfulness, preparedness, and faithfulness.
Application 1: Watchfulness (vv. 37-42)
Firstly, the unexpectedness of the Second Coming calls for watchfulness and alertness.
The Lord picks up the historical record of Noah (vv. 37–42) because it is very apt. It is the only illustration in human history that can even come close because it totally destroyed the face of the earth. Nobody believed there could be a flood. It came suddenly, unexpectedly, when everyone thought everything was normal. And so we’re going to find that the attitude that prevailed during the time of Noah will be the attitude that will prevail during the time of the Second Coming.
37 “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
It’s going to be like it was in Noah’s time just before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Noah kept building the ark, not just building but preaching. Second Peter 2:5 calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. He warned people there was going to be a flood; God’s wrath for their sins is coming. And they laughed at the old man, thinking him aged in mind, because it had never rained. There was no such thing as rain.
What was the problem in that day? People ignored the truth of God’s word and trusted their routine lifestyle, didn’t they? Do you know how long Noah preached and warned? A hundred and twenty years! They lived longer years then, and they laughed, ridiculed, mocked, and derided him. For 120 years, while he built the boat, he kept preaching, telling them why he was building the ark: “God is going to judge the wickedness of this world, and only those who put their faith in Him and believe His words and enter the ark are going to escape. I’m building the boat as a way of escape. Would you like to come on?” We get tired calling people to Christ after 10 years. He kept calling them for 120 years. No one came; maybe some came and went off. And they laughed and they laughed and they mocked. For 120 years, they went on with life as usual, just kept living normally—no anxiety, no thought of divine judgment—while he preached judgment.
What was their attitude?
38 “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.”
Is anything wrong with that? It didn’t say they killed, committed adultery, or lusted. Eating, drinking, marrying. What is the problem?
First problem: Indifference to their eternal souls and living like soulless animals. The problem is not realizing this whole globe is hanging on air, this life is so transient. They were so absorbed in the things of this life, and had no care for their souls, their Creator, God’s word, or God’s judgment. There was universal indifference about their souls. They were very sensitive to the things of this world, super sensitive, super active about worldly things. If a man gets money or facility, oh what joy! Sadness, oh if a man loses a job, oh how terrible he feels, struggles. If he is sick, how quickly he sends for the doctor, and how anxious he is to get the best advice within his reach so that his life may be preserved. If he is near to drowning, how he kicks and struggles. But no care for his eternal soul while it is drowning to eternal hell. They were dead in soul, living and walking like dead corpses. Did God create men and women in His image to live only eating and drinking, giving in marriage? What is the chief end of man? To glorify and enjoy God. If that is the chief end, the second lowest end is to live in this world, eat, drink. But this is the condition of depraved man. After the fall into sin, man is degraded into something less than a reasonable creature by his sin, so that he acts like a beast. The chief end for him is “What will I eat, drink, marry?” living for animal life. When a man has to live but a little time in this world, he thinks this is all he has, and his self-satisfaction, physical appetite (eating and drinking), and sexual appetite (by getting married) is all the focus. Nothing else is important in life.
Today’s world is like that, right? Holding this life with a death grip. All the worry from morning to evening is, “What will I eat, drink, marry?” The whole thinking, efforts, and lifestyle are patterned and absorbed in this. Get up, work hard, cook, eat, drink, then marry, have children, get them married. They were absorbed in their worldly pursuits, and utterly regardless of Noah’s repeated warnings. They saw no likelihood of a flood. They would not believe there was any danger.
Second problem: Universal disbelief in God’s word. God spoke to Noah and warned them for so many years. Not one believed him; not one soul believed him so as to escape from the wrath to come—not one! They universally rejected it! The result of unbelief is that their life went on as usual; they went through the routine. Some of you can hear sermons like this and go on with your routine of eating and drinking. This is because you don’t believe. You think they are cunningly devised fables, but they are in very truth, most precious and proven realities! Heaven and earth will pass away, but every word what we preach will not. But HE is all important. “Jesus marveled because of their unbelief.” How He should now! People are focused on temporal issues. They value the mundane things of life more than the promises through the gospel, while ignoring the warnings of God. Most of humanity will be going about business as usual when Christ comes on the clouds with power and great glory.
Third problem: Worldliness—they didn’t prepare for the flood. They did not prepare for the coming flood because they were so busy in the base enjoyment of mere eating. For some, their belly is their god. Half of their day goes in thinking about eating, drinking, maybe wine. They were married and given in marriage. This was a serious business and must be attended to. How could they forsake their wedding feasts and their newly-married brides? Children have to be married too. Oh, such a big thing in our culture. They will leave God and everything for the marriage. They were all so occupied with these things—these crying necessities of the life of swine—that they did not, and could not, think of anything superior to that. They never came to their senses like the prodigal son. All pigpen. No time for anything else; busy, busy. These things engrossed all their thoughts. And yet, friends, what was the use of eating and drinking when they were to be drowned the next day? And what was the use of being married when they were to be drowned in the morning? If they had looked at these things in the light of faith, they would have despised them; but they only used the bleary eyes of sense, and thus they set great store upon these present things of mirth. That became valuable and important.
They did not know that they were in a flood until they were in the flood! They didn’t realize (the Greek word is ginsk)—they didn’t realize until the kataklusmos came—the cataclysm. They didn’t realize how stupid they were to live such an animal lifestyle, a transient, perishing life they held with a death grip, with no care for their soul, disbelieving God’s word, only for a perishing world. What a miracle of madness! They didn’t realize until the flood carried them away. How sad. As if they were in some deep sleep, not realizing what they were doing, and suddenly woke up to find they were in eternal torment. But it was too late. The flood just washed them all away into damnation, into death, into judgment, into a godless eternity. All that were not with Noah in the ark were drowned. They were all swept away to their last account, unpardoned, unconverted, and unprepared to meet God. And our Lord says, “so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”
But that is how cataclysmic events happen. They just take place, most often without warning, and strike with sudden destruction. The tsunami of December 26th, 2004, in the Indian Ocean region found people going about life as normal: eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, talking and sleeping, laughing and crying, walking and running. Suddenly it came, and lakhs were carried away.
“…so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
That is how it is going to be. Like many of you are hearing, I am warning you, telling you Christ is going to come. What will you do? Will this change your mindset? Will this change your lifestyle? Or will you say, “Okay, Pastor, nice sermon,” and let us go back and eat, drink, and sleep, attend a marriage, watch TV, look at our mobile, go shopping? Oh, wake up! That is a deadly stupor. Make this warning sign wake you up. Warning! Warning! That generation was warned for 120 years. Folks lived longer then. You get a warning today. What are you going to do?
Now the camera focuses on specific individuals. Our Lord explains it with two simple pictures of life:
40 “Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.”
The word “one” in verse 40 is masculine in gender. The “one” in verse 41 is feminine in gender. This is just an illustration for those people to understand it will happen suddenly. In those days, a man’s task in that particular agricultural part of the world was to be in the field, and the women were there with the stone, the mill, grinding that which was harvested by the men. Two men, maybe brothers, maybe a father and a son, or maybe lifelong friends, go to work in their field. One is a believer; the other is not. Two women grinding at a mill, pulling and pushing the mill stone in its trough; maybe they were sisters or mother and daughter or best friends. One is a believer; the other is not. When Christ returns, “a complete and permanent division” takes place. Those Christians and unbelievers bound together by family or marriage or friendship or work will be forever separated when Christ returns.
And so it’s just life as usual, and in the midst of the routine of life, one shall be taken. Oh, this is just an illustration example. The whole doctrine of “taken away and left behind”—the series, stories, novels, and movies—is written based on this phrase, taken out of context. What do we mean, “taken”? It cannot mean the secret rapture. It is imagery picturing the flood sweeping men away into death. This talks about the separation process of believers and unbelievers. One is taken in judgment, and the other escapes. The point is there is a sudden separation.
The return of Jesus Christ is a time unknown to us, a time when the world seems to be operating on normalcy, and a time that is unexpected. So in light of this, how do you prepare for His return? That is really what Christ aimed for in His sermon.
Now, all of that to say this—verse 42—a very important application:
42 “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”
“Therefore.” That is a very important word that we find often in the Scripture. It signals that a conclusion or application is being drawn from what has just been stated.
But we don’t know, and the generation that’s alive at the time won’t know the exact moment of that. So the inevitable first application is that it can happen anytime now, when everything is going on normally. So there needs to be watchfulness, alertness. Not just alert when you hear this sermon, and alert only on Sunday. It’s a present imperative/command: be continually alert. This should make you live a life of watchfulness. Every generation, every person, be alert, “For you know not what hour your Lord does come.” It’s a cry for constant vigilance, constant alertness. He will come, and men who recognize that He is coming will be alert to that coming, spiritually aware. “Be on the alert”—watch out, pay attention, stay awake, be vigilant, keep your eyes open. Don’t allow this world and sin to lead you into spiritual stupor. Be alert.
So we have the time of His Second Coming is hidden. So the first application of this truth is we should learn a lifestyle of watchfulness. Next verses will teach about preparedness and faithfulness.
The Primary Application: Watchfulness
The Lord Himself teaches the primary application: Watchfulness. Let us mark this text and store it up in our minds. The word is used twice in this discourse—here and in the parable of the ten virgins (“five slept,” 25:13), and also in 26:41 when Jesus warned, “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation.” If we have to live holy, useful, and not enter into the temptation and dullness of this deceptive world, prepared for His coming, the first step is watchfulness. If we have to pray properly, we have to be watchful. Without this, we cannot even pray. That is why He says watch and pray.
Every time the Lord talks about the Second Coming, the first application is this “watch.” He knows the spiritual sleepiness of our nature. He knows how soon we forget the most solemn subjects in religion. He knows how unceasingly Satan labors to obscure the glorious doctrine of His coming again. He arms us with heart-searching exhortations to keep awake, if we would not be ruined forevermore. May we all have an ear to hear them.
Not only the Lord, but Mark, Luke, Paul, Peter, and John also use the term in their writings. Paul warned in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 concerning the Day of the Lord coming “just like a thief in the night,” or happening “suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child.” So, what is the Christian’s response? “So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober… watchful.” We’re not to be lulled to sleep by the world, or dulled by lack of spiritual discipline, or softened in our spiritual sensitivities by disobedience, or distracted by divided loyalties, or weakened by neglect and presumption in our spiritual lives. This is not something that happens in a day: “Oh, okay, I am watchful today,” and then tomorrow, we sleep. No, He is calling for a lifestyle of watchfulness. All of us have the propensity for becoming sluggish and dulled spiritually. So what can we do to guard against this and maintain watchfulness?
Practical Steps to Maintain Watchfulness
1. Focus on the Basics (Spiritual Disciplines): That is where we fail, isn’t it? We must give regular attention to our spiritual lives and to the spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines of Bible intake, prayer, meditation, and fellowship should be part of our lifestyle, or else there is no way our lifestyle is going to change to be watchful. These are the basic means that keep us watchful. Think of it: Satan and the world first attack these areas. How many times, when I want to pray, will the mobile ring? It is so important. I have found quite often, in my own life and as I have been approached by some who tell me that they are cold spiritually or dull in alertness, that 99% of the time they have neglected the spiritual disciplines. If you neglected eating healthy food, getting satisfactory rest, doing a little exercise, and lived on soft drinks, and then you told me that your energy level was low and that you just did not feel well—it would be no surprise what caused it! Even more so, stop and think about the provisions that Christ has given to us for our growth and maturity. Scripture says, in 2 Peter 1:3, that His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Oh, never miss the basic disciplines; do not allow the world to put you to sleep. Regular Bible intake, prayer, meditation, and fellowship. That’s why we must be part of a local church, attentive during the preaching and teaching of the Word, and teachable, seeking to apply the Word to every area of life, if we are to live a lifestyle of watchfulness.
2. Examine Your Belief in the Second Coming: Examine your heart and see if you honestly believe in the Second Coming of Christ, or if you have a last-day mocking mindset: “Where is He coming? All are the same as before.” That is how they will speak, but He will not. That is a dangerous mindset. Outside, we may not say it. Examine your heart and mind. Unless you strongly believe the Second Coming is part of your consciousness, part of your thinking, and part of the way you see life, you will not take this application of watchfulness seriously. Listen, this is not fiction, this is fact. This is how it will be. Just as the prophets said how it would be in His First Coming and He fulfilled every prophecy, so will He in His Second Coming. The warnings Christ gives serve to arouse us from slumbering. In the same way that the blare of an emergency siren in the middle of the night startles us into alertness, the warnings that Christ and the other biblical writers give serve to sharpen our senses for action instead of spiritual slumber.
- Give regular thought to Jesus Christ as Lord and Judge and King. Just like you believe His cross, believe and meditate on His Second Coming. As a preacher said in the beginning, the Second Coming should be as bright and clear as His First Coming. Read and meditate upon Christ’s teaching about His coming—this is part of the discipline. Remember the billion-dollar question: “What do you think of about Christ?” Your life is based on that. Often meditate about His coming and sing, and consider the portraits of Him in Colossians, Hebrews, and Revelation. Read and ponder the great hymns that have been given to the church. Consider regularly your love for Him and obedience to Him.
3. Recognize Your Weaknesses and the Dangers of Sin: Never get to the point where you think that you have progressed beyond the danger of falling prey to great temptation. It is often those that have been Christians for many years that get sloppy and negligent with their Christian lives, falling prey to patterns of sin. Realize how easily you can be lured into sin. Focus upon the grace of God that sustains you, the promises of Christ to sanctify you, and the certainty that the Holy Spirit enables you to live as a Christian in spite of your weaknesses.
4. Keep Up Your Guard: Be alert to those things that especially draw you into spiritual dullness. Maintain sensitivity to the deceptiveness of sin. Turn from sin; confess it; ask the Lord for grace to deal with sin; trust in the righteousness of Christ as your righteousness before God; seek to model your life after Him by the grace of God.
Are you prepared to meet Jesus Christ? Do you regularly cultivate your spiritual life so that you are sensitive to anything that might dull you or weaken your passion for Christ? Since we do not know the day of Christ’s return, then we must treat every day as if this might be the day. What changes do you need to make in your spiritual life to live with that kind of mind? Let us take action, for behold, He comes!
True Christians ought to live like watchmen. The Day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. They should strive to be always on their guard. They should behave like the sentinel of an army in an enemy’s land. They should resolve by God’s grace not to sleep at their post. That text of Paul’s deserves many a thought: “Let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6).
The Apparent Delay
Those who have still not repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what shall I say? You have not believed His First Coming; how will you believe His Second?
Scripture reveals the Lord is not delaying; He will come at the appointed time. Why does He seem to be delaying?
First Reason: Waiting for the Ripening of Sin (Judgment)
One reason is given in Revelation 14:15: “Another angel came out of the temple,” “crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud,” “Thrust in the sickle and reap, for the time is come for Thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” “And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.” It is imagery indicating the Lord is waiting for the ripening of sin and evil, for the harvest. Sin has run its course, until it has spent itself. Sin runs its full, rampant course, will reach its apex, and then the sickle will be put in, and the harvest will be accomplished. The reason God is not coming is He is allowing those who will go to hell to fill their cup of sin. Reject the gospel as much as you want, reject as much as you want, so your damnation will be full. Commit sins, go eat, drink, live as you want. Fill your cup. How terrible.
Second Reason: Waiting for Repentance (Mercy)
The second reason, Peter says, is He doesn’t want any of His people to perish; He is waiting for them so they come to repentance. What is happening in your life? You are ripening for judgment, or repenting and growing in grace? The last verse of Revelation says: “Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done… He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
Oh, may we take this warning to our heart.
This text is a convincing confirmation of the integrity of the biblical writers. People say, “Jesus is not God. His disciples loved Him so much they made it up.” If that was their plan, would they ever write anything like this: “Oh no, how can we say He is God? He doesn’t even know when the world will end and His return. How can He be God?” You know why Matthew wrote it? Because Jesus said it. They wrote it, letting every Jehovah’s Witness, heretic, and unbeliever who doesn’t believe in the deity of Christ use this to ask, “How can He be God?”
See, the integrity of the biblical writers is confirmed because they report the fact.
Lessons from the Hidden Timing
The text is a moving illustration of our Lord’s voluntary assumption of the form of a servant. He was dependent on the Father; He would agonize. What a picture of a servant! He became willingly ignorant even of an event in which He has such tremendous interest, because He was thirsty for your and my salvation. He became one of us so He could live the life we should have lived. I find them precious words; they point to the servanthood of our Savior.
1. Contentment with the Father’s Will
This verse is a convicting demonstration of our Lord’s contentment with the Father’s will. When He says, “I don’t know, but the Father,” there is no hint of irritation: “Father, I am embarrassed to tell them I don’t know. Father, it is the day of My public vindication; I will be glorified; it’s the visible manifestation of My victory. Can you please tell Me, Father?” He was content to keep that secret, unashamed to say, “I don’t know.” Oh, how we are all proud to say we do know! He is the Pastor; he should know everything. No, let us learn to say we don’t know.
There is a sinful nature in us. Every time people ask Pastors questions about all the secrets of the Bible, we want to pry into God’s silences: “Lord, why did You allow that and this?” as if God should give an account of His actions to us. What great contentment with the Father’s will!
2. Condemnation of Carnal Curiosity
This verse is a devastating condemnation of all carnal curiosity of men. If the angels don’t know, and the Son in His humiliation doesn’t know, what a horrible blasphemy it is when you take the Beast and the ten horns, take the 70 weeks of Daniel, use seven years and three-and-a-half years, and print charts, clearly spelling out when He is coming! He doesn’t know!
See, it is the carnal curiosity of men. Scripture tells us secret things belong to the Lord; what is revealed is for us—our duty. What is revealed about the Second Advent? It will come visibly, with power and great glory; believers will be glorified and unbelievers condemned. When we don’t know, so be ready! Keep your lamps burning, keep your hearts in passionate love for Christ, hands busy with His work, and tongues busy with His gospel. That is our duty.
This is a devastating indictment of all carnal curiosity of men; they would know more than the Son knew, more than the angels. God have mercy on such people. It is amazing how much time, energy, and money is invested in trying to ascertain what Christ told us that no man knows. It seems as though people would not believe Him! Regular television and radio programs, along with monthly magazines, devote their programming almost exclusively to this theme in spite of Christ’s clear instruction. Endless research takes place, theories explored, speculations and predictions made, and anticipation built upon false premises. Some muse that since the Bible has given us so much prophetic material, surely it is for us to at least pinpoint a timeframe for the return of Christ. But that is not the case.
The text is a powerful warning to avoid all movements and men which indulge in date setting. Seventh-Day Adventists call Mary White a prophet. She cannot be a prophet. She set a date for His coming. When it didn’t happen, they changed their theology in a different way, saying, “Well, He came in a different way, in a revival, in spirit.”
In spite of all this clear verse emphasizing the unknown hour, you know what dispensationalists say who teach that after the rapture comes seven years of tribulation? They say, “See, He is saying day or hour; we cannot know the exact day or hour, but we can know the year or month; it will be after seven years of tribulation.” The expression, “day and hour,” was not intended to exclude only the preciseness of predictability but to go on to exclude even broader predictions.
So that is what they do. These curiosity teachings will take our heart away from Christ and practical duties. The remaining part of this chapter and the next chapter is entirely devoted to the teaching of watchfulness and preparedness for His coming.
Conclusion: Living in Readiness
The Day is fixed. Though the date is not, that day is certain and fixed. If it were to come today, if we hear the trump of God, the voice of the archangel, and see the Lord with glory and power, where will you be? Will the angels be sent to gather you as elect to enjoy everlasting bliss, or would they be gathering you as tares for everlasting burning? When the cosmic shaking begins, men cry to rocks and mountains to fall on them. Why? Then they will know it was not some preacher’s talk trying to scare them into getting saved. He keeps pleading through His servants, “Be reconciled to God,” but you keep running from God.
Are you living in such a way that you will be happy when He comes today? That shows you how ready you are.
And those of you who are Christians, again, may I just speak to my own heart as well, this is a reminder for us that we need to make investments that are eternal. This whole thing is going to burn up. This whole thing is going to be destroyed. And only what we have invested in eternity will survive, will remain. And I just ask God to renew my commitment to make eternal investments with all that I have—all that I have: possessions, resources, abilities, time, everything.
The second thing that demands our attention is the awful separation that will take place when the Lord Jesus comes again. We read twice over, that “one shall be taken and the other left.”
The godly and the ungodly, at present, are all mingled together. In the congregation and in the place of worship, in the city and in the field, the children of God and the children of the world are all side by side. But it shall not be so always. In the Day of our Lord’s return, there shall at length be a complete division. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, each party shall be separated from the other forevermore. Wives shall be separated from husbands, parents from children, brothers from sisters, masters from servants, preachers from hearers. There shall be no time for parting words or a change of mind when the Lord appears. All shall be taken as they are, and reap according as they have sown. Believers shall be caught up to glory, honor, and eternal life. Unbelievers shall be left behind to shame and everlasting contempt. Blessed and happy are they who are of one heart in following Christ! Their union alone shall never be broken. It shall last forevermore. Who can describe the happiness of those who are taken when the Lord returns? Who can imagine the misery of those who are left behind? May we think on these things and consider our ways.
Let us close the chapter with solemn feelings. The things we have just been reading call loudly for great searchings of heart. Let us seek to make sure that we are in Christ, and have an ark of safety when the day of wrath breaks on the world. Let us strive so to live that we may be pronounced “blessed” at the last, and not cast off forevermore. Well might John say, “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 